A grandfather’s hopeful outlook

To my grandson, Jack. Welcome. Your birth has done much to restore your grandfather’s faith that our country –and the world in which we live— can have a better future.

Before you arrived,  I kept finding myself mired in an expectation that there was no discernible end in sight for our current national nightmare. Between our failing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating toxic partisanship, renewed disunity over our continuing failure to achieve the promise of a just and equal society and our inability to stem the environmental disaster ahead, I was feeling pretty hopeless.

Your birth, Jack, coupled with recent stirrings of decency and

resolve in the body politic have lifted me from that malaise.

I choose now to be an optimist that our future will be restored and our body politic will once again embody the values of our citizens and restore our nation to its position as a world leader in economic and scientific advancement and human rights.

I must be an optimist for I am now a grandfather. My horizon of personal responsibility for the future now tangibly extends for another century.  Seeing your mother and father hold you is a window to our best future.

My horizon of personal responsibility for the future now tangibly extends for another century.

You, Jack, deserve to live your life as your parents and grandparents have, until recently, been able to live theirs: With the pride and satisfaction of being contributing citizens in the greatest nation on earth.  I sense that we are coming to a place where much of our country can unite to defeat COVID-19; to improve opportunities and safety for our brothers and sisters of color; and to address the environmental challenges that existentially threaten the future of your entire generation.

Jack,  my promise to you is that I will do my best to contribute through words and deeds to move our country forward. I will do my best to do anything I can to ensure a bright and promising future for you and your generation. I will support your parents as they raise you to become a man with a strong sense of justice and fairness for all without regard to differences in skin tone or nationality.

Jack,  my promise to you is that I will do my best to contribute through words and deeds to move our country forward.

Thank you, Jack, for restoring my sense of hope and possibilities and providing me a North Star to guide my future years on this planet we now share.

– Poppy